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FORBES ASIA MARCH 2020
THE LIST
- KAMARUDIN MERANUN
$315 MILLION
AIRASIA
AGE: 58
- WONG TEEK SON
$310 MILLION
RIVERSTONE HOLDINGS
AGE: 57
- MOKHZANI MAHATHIR
$305 MILLION
SAPURA ENERGY
AGE: 59
- GOOI SEONG LIM
$290 MILLION
KIM LOONG RESOURCES
AGE: 70
- CHU JENN WENG
$280 MILLION
ViTROX
AGE: 50
- KONG PAK LIM
$275 MILLION
UNITED OVERSEAS AUSTRALIA
AGE: 65
- YONG PANG CHAUN
$265 MILLION
PADINI HOLDINGS
AGE: 69
- OH KUANG ENG
$255 MILLION
MI TECHNOVATION
AGE: 50
CHARLES PERTWEE/BLOOMBERG; NICKY LOH/BLOOMBERG
FOR MORE INFO, GO TO
FORBES.COM/MALAYSIA
Big Dig
LIM KANG HOO
Bumpy
Road
VINCENT TAN
MALAYSIA’S
50 RICHEST
CHANGE IN WEALTH KEY:
UP DOWN UNCHANGED
NEW TO THE LIST RETURNEE
Vincent Tan’s flagship Berjaya Corp. has
not escaped the Malaysian stock market’s
overall decline. Berjaya’s stock fell about
14% in the past 12 months, while Tan’s for-
tune is down 2.6% to $750 million.
Tan also had to stall the listing of U Mo-
bile, one of the country’s largest cellular
companies—an IPO that would have re-
portedly raised up to $500 million. Tan,
who chairs its board, announced plans to
list the firm in 2018. Yet despite a bum-
per 2019 for Malaysian IPOs—with 30
new listings, the highest in more than a
decade—U Mobile’s IPO didn’t material-
ize. CEO Wong Heang Tuck was quoted in
November saying that the IPO remains in
the works for this year.
An oversupply of unsold residential and
commercial units across Malaysia also
weighed on Berjaya Corp., causing a loss
of 54 million ringgit ($13 million) on rev-
enue of 2 billion ringgit for the quarter
ended in September 2019. Berjaya warned
shareholders in November that it faces a
challenging environment amid economic
uncertainty at home and abroad. Tan’s of-
fice and Berjaya officials did not respond to
requests for comment. —Joe Cochrane
One of the main developers behind
Iskandar Malaysia in Johor Bahru,
Lim Kang Hoo is now hoping this
year to launch Bandar Malaysia, the
$33 billion, off-again, now on-again
project in Kuala Lumpur, revival of
which helped boost Lim’s fortune
8% to $765 million.
His privately held Iskandar Wa-
terfront Holdings will develop 197 hectares
on a former air force base as part of a ven-
ture with China Railway Engineering and
Malaysia’s finance ministry. When it’s done
in roughly 20 years, the mixed-use develop-
ment will have office buildings, a shopping
mall, housing, public green spaces and a
transport hub.
The project was launched in 2011 by the
fraud-ridden government fund 1Malaysia
Development Bhd. (1MDB), only to be can-
celled in 2017, and then revived in 2018.
This news boosted shares of Lim’s Iskandar
Waterfront City and Ekovest, which gained
almost 70% and 31%, respectively, in the
past year. —Suzanne Nam
